2. “Can a man be profitable to God?Surely he who is wise is profitable to himself.
3. Is it any pleasure to the Almighty, that you are righteous?Or does it benefit him, that you make your ways perfect?
4. Is it for your piety that he reproves you,that he enters with you into judgement?
5. Isn’t your wickedness great?Neither is there any end to your iniquities.
6. For you have taken pledges from your brother for nothing,and stripped the naked of their clothing.
7. You haven’t given water to the weary to drink,and you have withheld bread from the hungry.
8. But as for the mighty man, he had the earth.The honourable man, he lived in it.
9. You have sent widows away empty,and the arms of the fatherless have been broken.
10. Therefore snares are around you.Sudden fear troubles you,
11. or darkness, so that you can not see,and floods of waters cover you.
12. “Isn’t God in the heights of heaven?See the height of the stars, how high they are!
13. You say, ‘What does God know?Can he judge through the thick darkness?
14. Thick clouds are a covering to him, so that he doesn’t see.He walks on the vault of the sky.’
15. Will you keep the old way,which wicked men have trodden,